Holy Mass of the Underworld
S4 E4 Holy Mass of the Underworld
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We open post-producer credits where an accused stands silent in a formal room full of seated white gloved men and the iconography on the walls suggests a White Glove club of sorts. The miserable accused was tried 2 months ago by a lenient Berlin court then released on probation, but now the club gets to weigh in as well. Podium guy finally describes the accused as a child molester and the accused starts losing it in tears. “I’ll never do it again. I promise” but the murmurs are skeptical. Ah, it’s the “White Hand” club and having just checked Wiki I find it’s a 20 year old secret Serbian Military organization and my eye’s glaze over with boredom momentarily before snapping open wide as I see that poor Theodor Kroll has just been sentenced to death. The executioners are summoned and with only mild surprise our old pals from Station 14, Kuschke and Naumann are there ready to dispense justice. They drape a white hood over Ted’s head and escort him outside so he won’t stain the wood floor then introduce a bullet to the back of his head.
. . . and credits!
The dark circle expands on a Berlin Zeppelin terminal building as all of 20 or so well heeled travelers ($12K per ticket!) exit in the damp night. Waiting is Miss Seegers who I have finally discovered is named MaLu (Marie-Louis) as well as Jacob Grun fresh off that New Years Eve phone chat. Abe greets his Uncle Jacob who tugs gently on his nephew's leg about being a “real American” now who shortened his name from Avreml Goldstein to "Abe Gold" and now I can check that face off the list. MaLu stands bursting with anticipation and greets Russian spy, who's name turns out to be Oscar Kulanin, with a big hug and a passionate kiss! “Do you have what I asked you for?” so she raises a smart-assed salute along with a key, but more surprisingly he wants to know, “Were you with him?” and now quite a few interesting pieces fall into place while we deal with some relationship jealousy issues.
In a cab, Jacob hands Abe a magnifying glass to better see the Rothschild gem shown in a newspaper society picture of Helga and Alfred. “Yes. That’s it.” They quibble about what Abe’s father would have wanted done after they recover the jewel but Abe has the last word since dad “sleeps with the fishes” - a quaint phrase I suppose the Sicilians later borrowed (1). Jacob makes one last try for the jewel but is firmly rebuffed and their parting is tense.
So let’s check out the Moka Efti! Jerry announces hour 21 where "we are ruled by the unending night!” The contestants are still burning ridiculous amount of energy ignoring my advice to pace themselves. Esther is disappointed at how much the bar has raked in but they have more than enough to cover the prize money so there’s that. Rudi bounces in smiling and boy is he a bundle of welcome energy! Rudi presents Lotte a vial of “fizzy powder” and now I know where all that energy came from.
Next comes some dancing razzle-dazzle designed to get folks drinking while Lotte snarks on the quality of Rudi's cocaine. Rudi asks how Butterfly Girl is doing as I finally learn her name is Doris! At this point the writers are feeling a bit guilty about how the Moka Ifti scenes have elbowed out so many other plot threads. So after 21 hours of non-stop dancing it suddenly occurs to Lotte to be curious about Benni’s death. Rudi still insists that Benni’s hands were stomped on which outrages Lotte so she insists that Bohm should be informed! Huh? The very one who got her fired?! “Why not Rath?" Rudi asks and Lotte zaps back. “They’re both assholes, but Bohm doesn’t pretend to be anything else.” Cool. Rudi probably thinks so too and they commence to work off that "meh" cocaine he "borrowed" from work.
At a busy restaurant walks in our Horse Path Banner Hanger asking for Colonel Wendt. Arndt Scheer, SA-member Berlin-Hellersdorf Sount stands nervously at Wendt’s table and name drops his father whom Wendt recalls “A great loss, the death of your father. . .” That ought to at least get Arndt offered a seat and a glass of orange juice. Arndt brown-noses Wendt shamefully and finally gets that invite, but in Germany they drink beer for breakfast apparently. Wendt's BS meter spikes as he coldly zeros in on Arndt’s nervous anxiety then frankly calls BS on what Arndt is up to. The hapless kid is such a newbie at skullduggery he immediately spills the entire scheme to besmirch Wendt’s reputation for Stennes’ release. Arndt must not be a chip off his dad’s block, I'm thinking. Wendt tells the kid to f* off, but then Arndt whines pathetically - “now I’m almost relieved about failing . . . ” and by god that works! Wendt welcomes the kid to the beer and receives a dew-eyed gaze in return.
Blueprints! Unrolling on a table with an overhead POV spanning a lengthy dinner table ending at Alfred’s waist and a very serious look on his face. Alfred suggests to his two rocket scientists that perhaps a ton of dynamite could easily replace his own ass sitting in the nose cone while the rocket’s destination might be better detoured from the moon to perhaps, say, Paris, London or Warsaw. Boy that Wendt was certainly persuasive! All it took was one pony ride! The engineers are politely circumspect thinking they’d have to run that notion by the Defense Minister, but Al sees no problem with obtaining General Seegers approval. So with that the engineers start riffing design changes while dropping impressive tech terms like "wobble clock register, fracturing pistons and trombone inner track" to impress the boss. I'm calling bullsh*it on all that since they clearly know who's signing their paychecks.
Now we're casual dining at Katelbach’s favorite lunch spot with his pal Editor Heymann and State Lawyer Litten. As Reinhold Graf suggested, Gereon strolls in and asks for an explainer about the crime angle of boxing, betting and ring clubs. (2) What follows is probably the densest 10 minutes of exposition so far this season. It’s quite an amazing piece of work so I’ll try to do it justice.
After Litten exits, Editor Heymann explains the Berlin boxing game involves half the mobster gangs each having their own boxing club and stable of boxers. As like everything else in life, there are two factions that hate each other. Heymann rattles off many names and places with zero mercy for this poor scribe. I’m making an executive decision here to just focus on Walter Weintribe, having taken over his enterprise from dead Edgar and a guy who sports red hats with matching glasses, Hugo Wannamacher, aka "Red Hugo."
Interestingly, the director and editors have put on an amazing misdirection play here. Showing us everything we need to know while telling us mere incidentals and I like it. We’re cutting in and out of the locker room with Heymann’s continuing voiceover making me panic some. We're seeing quite a bit of atmosphere here - cashiers taking bets, hi-5ing mobsters taking their seats ringside, Gereon walking into the “Sportpalast” and I would be remiss if I didn’t cite my favorite rat and envelope toting mobster from E1. Yo, “Rob Rat!” Good to see you, how's your pet?
Red Hugo enters the locker room and starts taking the piss on boxer Schultz and Walter when one of Walter’s henchmen I’ll name "Fuch" for now, tells his mustachioed partner, Deigo “I’ll see if the coast is clear” then Fuch walks out to the building parking where he converses sotto voce with a really gaunt looking guy and then returns back. After more gangster hi-5s, Gereon locates an excellent seat for his modest detective salary. As he tries to memorize all of the gangster faces, we cut back to the lunch seminar where Heymann has just urged Gereon to not be distracted by the match in favor of taking in this glorious “Holy Mass of the Underworld.”
Boxers are announced while Heymann and Katelbach debate the match being fixed and they agree “not likely” – figuring the odds too great against Kroner. The camera cuts to Fuch looking slimy for no apparent reason which is his default facial expression. We cut to the parking deck where Gaunt Guy approaches a parked car to report “Kroner will win. 3rd round.” In return he receives a 40,000 mark stack of bills from some guy sitting inside we can't see. At the betting windows, final bets are announced and before windows close, Gaunt Guy’s cronies place all those marks betting Kroner in 3, and one particular cashier starts sweating bullets.
The match starts in a beautiful wonderfully lit set and while it’s not “Raging Bull” it’s not bad, but it does lack the slow motion b&w back-lit sweat and spittle I’m used to. As the boxers pound each other, the writers decide to cut to Heymann waxing bombastic with an amazingly poetic homage to the centuries old sport of boxing. More misdirection from the director and editor I'm thinking. It took until round #3 for the "Sweating Cashier" to find the courage to tell Walter of the massive bets against Schultz. When Walter hears how much he totally freaks then bolts to the ring to holler at Schultz. (3) Walter is yelling “don’t mess up now!” and here I have to pause to apologize for all the snark I’ve been dishing out at the quality of the subtitles. As Schultz & Kroner clinch, the subtitles display one perfectly accurate and precisely timed cue from Kroner. “Now.” Schultz turns distractedly to hear what boss is yelling and gets cold-cocked.
The crowd goes nuts as does Walter who rapidly stalks over to rudely headlock Red Hugo and accuse him of fixing the match. Red Hugo would claim innocence but he can’t speak well at the moment. Luckily for him, Gereon approaches, exchanges pleasantries, then invites Red Hugo to his office tomorrow at 10:00 for some criminal questioning. It’s a date!
So now is possibly a good time for Walter to do his boxer Schultz’s annual performance review that he's put off, and while I’ve had some bad appraisals in my time, his is going far worst as Walter tries to strangle Schultz and bash his skull in at the same time. Long story short, both boxers were instructed by some lanky Gaunt Guy (!!!) the fix was in for the 3rd round and they both just went along without question cause their brains, Walter later insists, “There’s just jelly! Red jelly!”
Clearly it would also be time for Fuch’s performance review and I'll bet he would flunk it worse as it’s a fireable offense to fix a boxing match behind your bosses back. The boxing segment finally winds down via Gaunt Guy walking a quiet dark driveway to a parked car and I'm down for the count as well.
Back at SA headquarters, sweet old ladies sew red Nazi armbands while Hellstrom is yammering something about the Tietz burglary not having settled down yet in the papers. Hellstrom doesn’t quite have the pipes Stennes did but he’ll suffice for now. The Junior SA guys say they know nothing about Toni and Benni - they just happened to be on the roof at the same time when the cops showed up. Arndt Scheer thinks he might know where to find Toni. Then Hellstrom screams the Jr. Nazi's out the door to get her or don't come back!
Toni walks into a crowded building filled with people meeting and eating. She spies her fence Smooth operator at a table and her face tightens. Confronting him, she asks for her jewel dough and he lies badly to stall, asking about “adverts" and I finally get his name, Peter! She says she has a “good one” and reveals the name and address -“Jewelry in the bedroom, Benhke". Hmmm. Peter’s teeth are disgusting, which is neither here nor there, and he hands her a few coins for her burglary tip. “Pasha” from her old Street Urchins Gang has listened in on all that and we cut to –
Moritz exits a military truck parked at the building Toni’s in. He looks thru the window to see her sitting there then rats her out. He and Arndt discuss strategy, and Moritz explains his plan to either convince her to come quietly else he'll flush her out the back door so the others can take her. I’m honestly curious which way it will go. Moritz enters to Toni and asks to talk which Toni balks. He hauls her up from the table and just then we cut to the streets nearby where our old pal Sgt Naumann is walking his beat. Moritz has now hustled Toni out the back alley then dramatically slashes his own face. (!!!) He hands the knife to surprised Toni then urges her to gtfo. Good lad! She runs out of the alley only to be cut off by Sgt Naumann who chases her 180 back to Moritz. Gun drawn, Sgt Naumann orders Moritz to catch her then Naumann throws her to the ground aiming his gun at her face. Naumann orders Moritz to scan for witnesses but Moritz has a better idea and decides to plunge his knife in Naumann's back! I leap from the couch yelling "You go dude!" Moritz is as stunned as Toni and I, and just then the rest of the Jr. SA boys arrive. Toni finds her wits and hauls ass. But Moritz, looking guilty as hell as the SA sees Naumann dead, has no other choice but to follow her and now they’re both on the run.
I could really use a drink about now so we return to check in on the Moka Ifti to see how Lotte is holding up. Butterfly Girl Doris is fading fast and Toni doesn’t look much better. There are about 20 couples remaining on the floor in various stages of dress, sweat and sheer fatigue. Doris now collapses barely conscious as one of the refs cruelly kneels over her with a stop watch counting down. Lotte stares at her, crushed, when Doris is lifted away. A nurse attends while Vanna White cruelly dumps Doris's number in the trash. Lotte uses all that as impetus to soldier on via a free-form hippy dance and we cut to . . .
Arndt is walking the stairs of a police precinct and asks where to report a cop murder. Reinhold Graf just happens to walk by at that moment. “What did you say?”
- and cut to a aerial drone shot looking down at a car pulling to a curb with jazzy music. Reinhold and Gereon exit the car and enter the Moka Efti as I try to keep up.
By this time only two couples are still standing and I don’t even have to look to see that it’s Lotte & Benni versus pro dancer #14. Gereon needs to speak to Lotte but staying within the rules he has to dance to do that. He tells Benni gtfo while Lotte freezes, and this gets the striped umpires attention. Lotte has no choice but to keep dancing with loathsome Gereon as partner. Gereon asks where Toni is and states she needs to turn herself in for a cop killing. Yikes, that went badly for Lotte, didn’t it? She is of course stunned and freezes once again risking being on the countdown clock once more.
It's kind of torture to witness this dilemma for her as she stands still and numb while the callous crowd counts down from "8! 7! . . ." With well over 20 hours of cocaine and strenuous dancing, her brain is fried as she gazes about her at nothing in particular. The camera pans to all the prize money strung up in it's display that she’s danced so long and hard to win. As the crowd counts "5! 4! . . ." she's decided. “Come on” and walks off as if the money and hours of now meaningless effort meant nothing. It will be a long time before I can forgive Gereon his really, really bad timing.
Lotte knows where Toni would hide, so Renate opens the door to lie that Toni's not there. Lotte is so exhausted she can barely think yet pleads with Renate to . . . then collapses to the floor. Overhearing, Gereon races up to find her. We pan in from outside Lotte’s window to see Gereon place her limp figure gently on her bed. Jackie, Reinhold and Gereon stand uselessly there for a moment then leave.
Still dark, we check in with Fuch standing outside his parked car. Another car pulls up to him and my best guess of who that might be is whoever hired Gaunt Guy. Fuch speaks to the dark figure – “All done” and receives an envelope in return. Credits. . .
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Yikes. Another somber depressing episode as seemingly everyone is in dire straits. Sadly we are done with the Moka Efti for now. Toni’s 3 episode cop evasion thread just got a lot more serious and the show now has the new dilemma of what to do about Moritz. I’m fine with the time and attention a new boxing thread has taken as that was the highlight of the episode, but I can’t help but wish Lottie would get a freaking break now and then. Thinking back to S3, the writers had no problem dragging Greta thru pure hell for most of the season, so I'm getting a bit nervous for Lotte. On the bright side this might be a rapprochement for Gereon/Lotte since they’ll need to team up to search for Toni. Or perhaps Gereon gets a new waitress GF for a bit instead. Also I look forward to checking up on MaLu and her new beaux, Oscar and Alfred's Versailles violations might be a fun distraction as well. So per usual, countless revisions and editing pre & post publishing. Plus bonus mugshots of all the Gangsters at the boxing match and a special footnote graphic (4) tracking down who did exactly what to fix the match that cost poor Walter a hell of a lot of money! And if you’re still reading this far, thanks!
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Footnotes!
1) Thanks to "Al" who offers an amazing and excellent background blog on "Ring Clubs in Berlin"
https://babylon-berlin-series.blogspot.com/2023/01/ring-clubs-in-berlin.html
2) I've out-snarked myself here, but I can't give it away yet. E10 or E11 or so will reveal exactly what happened to Abe's dad.
3) My poor effort at googling the value of 40,000 marks adjusted for inflation and converted to dollars and then multiplied by the 1 to 16 odds brings Walter’s potential loss to over $20 million, which I’m skeptical of, but Walter acts like it’s a lot of money anyway.
4) This might not be necessary but I was completely fooled by how the "fix" went down. At first glance it seemed Walter was 100% responsible for Schultz's KO but if so, the betting stuff wouldn't make sense. As penance I decided to document how it went with screenshots. A late correction is that Deigo has the mustache, Walter's traitor is Fuch.
